Self-adjusting ear clip



sept 9, 1969 R. PINTARELLI 3,465,542

SELF-ADJUSTING EAR CLI P Filed Dec. 5, 1966 /ili INVENTOR,

Ralph Pflntarell,

QM! f WW Attrys.

United States Patent O 3,465,542 SELF-ADJUSTING EAR CLIP Ralph Pintarelli, 11 Pleasant View Circle, Greenville, R.I. 02828 Filed Dec. 5, 1966, Ser. No. 599,220 Int. Cl. A44c 7/00 U.S. Cl. 63-14 2 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE An ear clip of the pivotal clamp-arm type wherein no springs are necessary for maintaining the arm in clamping position and wherein the clamping arm is pivotally assembled to the ear clip body without the necessity of using pivot pins or additional parts of a similar nature.

Background of the invention This invention relates generally to the jewelry art and is more particularly concerned with the provision of a novel and improved ear clip or earring. Specifically, this invention relates to ear clips of the type wherein a clamping arm is pivotally connected to a body portion, said clamping arm being rotatable or pivotal from an open to a closed position, whereupon when said clamping arm is in its said closed position, the lobe of the wearer is gripped between the body portion and clamping arm of the ear clip so as to maintain the ear clip or earring on the wearers ear.

Prior art ear clips of this type have traditionally necessitated the use of expensive automatic equipment for assembling the clamping arm to the body portion, and in many cases the pivotal connection between the clamping arm and the `body portion has been achieved by using a pivot pin, which then necessitates a spinning operation to maintain the pin in proper assembly with the parts. In addition, prior art ear clips of this type usually employ some sort of resilient means for normally urging the clamping arm to its closed or operative position. The presence of such resilient means further complicates the manufacture and assembly of ear clips of this type.

Summary of the invention It has therefore been found desirable to provide an ear clip of the type above described wherein only two working parts are employed, namely, the body portion of the clip and the clamping arm that is pivotally associated therewith. The instant invention eliminates the necessity of any additional parts, such as pivot pins and the like.

In addition, the instant invention provides means for releasably maintaining the clamping arm in its closed or operative position, thus elminating the necessity of employing resilient means for urging the clamping arm to its closed position.

The two parts which make up the instant invention, namely, the body porti-on and the clamping arm, both may be struck or stamped from flat sheet stock, after which only one `very simple bending or forming operation is necessary in connection with the body portion. Once the body portion has been properly formed, it is ready to pivotally receive the clamping arm, and the assembly of these two parts is nothing more than a snap-in assembly which may be easily and expeditiously accomplished.

Brief description of the drawing ln the drawings which illustrate the Ibest mode presently contemplated for carrying out the present invention:

FIG. 1 is a side elevational view of an ear clip constructed in accordance with my invention with the clamping arm shown in closed position;

FIG. 2 is a bottom view of the ear clip shown in FIG. l;

3,465,542 Patented Sept. 9, 1969 ICC Description of the preferred embodiment Referring now to the drawings, there is shown generally at 10 an ear clip comprising a body portion 12 and a clamping element 14. The body portion 12 comprises an upright member 16 which terminates at its upper extremity in an ornamental portion 18 which may be of any suitable size or configuration, it being understood that the portion 18 is adapted to engage the outer surface of the wearers lobe. At its lower extremity, the upright member 16 has a pair of rearwardly extending legs 20 and 22. As will be seen most clearly in FIG. 6, the body portion 12 is of unitary, integral construction and may be formed or struck from any desirable metallic at stock. Once the body portion 12 has been struck so as to result in the configuration illustrated in FIG. 6, the legs 20 and 22 are bent rearwardly with respect to the plane of upright member 16 whereupon said legs extend in spaced, substantially parallel relation with respect to each other, as shown most clearly in FIGS. 2 and 4.

Equally spaced from upright member 16, and integrally formed in the legs 20 and 22 are a pair of protuberances or depressions 24, it being noted that when the legs 20 and 22 are bent rearwardly as illustrated in FIGS. 2 and 4, the protuberances 24 are oppositely disposed with respect to each other and extend inwardly from the plane of the legs 20 and 22. An additional protuberance or depression 26 is formed in the longer leg 22 adjacent the outer extremity of said leg, said protuberance also extending inwardly from the plane of its leg. For reasons hereinafter to be made apparent, the diameter of protuberance 26 is somewhat smaller than that of the protuberances 24, it being understood that the protuberances 24 are of substantially equal size.

Clamping element 14 is also struck or formed from any suitable metallic flat stock and comprises a base portion 28 having an upstanding arm 30 extending integrally therefrom. As will be seen most clearly in FIG. 5, base portion 28 is provided wih a first aperture 32, a second aperture 34, and an eye 36. A pair of oppositely extending and upright grooves 38 communicate with aperture 32 on opposite sides of base portion 28, while a' similar groove 40 is disposed in angular communication with the upper portion of aperture 34 on one face only of `base portion 28.

In order to assemble the clamping element 14 to body portion 12, it is simply necessary to slidably engage aperture 32 between the oppositely disposed protuberances 24. This engagement is facilitated by the grooves 38 which `function to guide the aperture 32 between the protuberances until the said protuberances snap into opposite sides of the said aperture, as illustrated most clearly in FIG. 4. It will, of course, be understood that the dimensions of the protuberances 24 and the distance therebetween are such that the legs 20 and 22 will yieldingly receive base portion 28 therebetween until said protuberances 24 snap into aperture 32 to pivotally mount clamping element 14 with respect to lbody portion 12. Expressed differently, the protuberances 24 and aperture 32 cooperate to form a rotary mounting for clamping element 14. Once the clamping element 14 has been pivotally assembled to body portion 12, it will be understood that the clamping element may be rotated between the open position illustrated in FIG. 3 and the closed position illustrated in FIG. 1. As the clamping element 14 and its arm 30 move pivotally from the open position illustrated in FIG. 3 to the closed position illustrated in FIG. 1, it will be understood that aperture 34 moves into engagement with protuberance 26, this engagement facilitated and guided by means of groove 40. Here again, the protuberance 26 snaps into aperture 34 to provide a detent for releasably maintaining the clamping element in its closed position. Since, however, as previously indicated, the size of protuberance 26 is slightly smaller than that of protuberances 24, and, more particularly is smaller than the diameter of aperture 34, it follows that a small degree of movement of clamping element 14 and arm 30 will be permitted even when protuberance 26 is in engagement with its aperture 34, this movement providing a self-adjusting action for clamping element 14, thus enabling the arm 30 to automatically compensate for different-size ear lobes. It will `be understood that when the arm 30 is in its closed position, as illustrated in FIG. 1, the wearers lobe will be gripped between portion 18 of body 12 and arm 30 of element 14 to maintain the earring in operative position on the wearers lobe. The resilience of the human ear lobe, plus the self-adjusting action of arm 30 just described, enables ear clip to effectively grip differentsize lobes without the necessity of using some sort of resilient means for biasing the arm 30 to its closed position.

For further ornamentation, the ear clip 10 may be provided with a suitable drop ornament (not shown) which may be suspended, as by chain 42, from eye 36, said eye preferably being split at at 44 to enable securement of chain 42 thereto.

It will be seen that ear clip 10 comprises only two working parts, each of which may be easily blanked and formed from fiat metal stock, said parts then being readily assemblable to each other without the necessity of using complicated and expensive equipment or tools, since the assembly actually comprises nothing more than a very simple snap-in connection. Nor is it necessary to use spring means for urging the clamping arm to closed position, thus resulting in a less expensive assembly, and one which is not as subject to wear, as are spring loaded ear clips of this type, where repeated opening and closing of the clamping arm results in a lessening of the spring tension, thus reducing the effective life of such clips.

Although the leg 22 has `been illustrated as being longer than the leg 20, it will be understood that the leg may be of equal length, if desired, and it will further be understood that the leg 20, if elongated, could be provided with another protuberance 26 oppositely disposed to the protuberance 26 shown and described. It has been found in practice, however, that where the `body portion 12 is made from sufficiently strong metal stock, the single protuberance 26 is sufficient to give the desired detent action as described.

While there is shown and described herein certain specific structure embodying the invention, it will be manifest to those skilled in the art that various modifications and rearrangements of the parts may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the underlying inventive concept and that the same is not limited to the particular forms herein shown and described except insofar as indicated by the scope of the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. An ear clip comprising a substantially upright member having a portion adjacent its upper extremity for engaging the outer surface of a wearers lobe, a pair of spaced, substantially parallel legs extending rearwardly from adjacent the lower extremity of said member, a clamping element having a base portion with an upstanding arm extending therefrom, and integral means on said base portion and said legs cooperating to snapreceive said `base portion between said legs for rotary movement with respect thereto, rotation of said vbase portion with respect to said legs causing said arm to swing toward said upright mem-ber to clamp a wearers lobe therebetween, second integral means on said base portion and said legs for releasably positioning and maintaining said arm in clamping position, said second integral means comprising an aperture and a protuberance releasably interengaged therewith, said protuberance loosely fitting within said aperture, whereby to permit a predetermined amount of movement of said clamping element when the latter is in its aforesaid clamping position.

2. The ear clip of claim 1 further characterized in that said aperture is in said base portion and said protuberance extends inwardly from one of said legs, said base portion having a groove communicating with said aperture for facilitating and guiding movement of said protuberance into and out of engagement with said aperture when said base portion is rotated with respect to said legs.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 155,682 10/1874 Steinheuer 63-13 2,216,480 10/1940 Severy. 2,570,341 10/1951 Hake.

FOREIGN PATENTS 653,960 11/1928 France. 914,366 l/1963 Great Britain.

F. BARRY SHAY, Primary Examiner 

